The British Monarchy Miscellany
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displeasure to his master, in 1535 when he insulted Anne Boleyn and their daughter Elizabeth. He was forgiven however and lived on to survive both Anne and Henry.
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Edward VI
Reign:
28 January 1547 – 6 July 1553
Birth:
12 October 1537, at Hampton Court Palace, near London.
Only son of King Henry VIII by his 3rd wife Jane Seymour.
Queen:
None
Death:
6 July 1553, at Greenwich Palace, near London.
Key Facts:
The long-awaited male heir of King Henry VIII,
Edward succeeded his father at the age of 9. A regency council was initially appointed to rule in his name but power was soon usurped, first by Edward’s uncle the Duke of Somerset in 1547, then by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland in 1550. Edward never ruled directly in his own name.
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He was raised as a committed Protestant and anti-
Catholic from a very early age, and even as a minor he strongly supported the sweeping Protestant reforms in the Church of England introduced by his councillors. His reign saw the introduction in 1549 of the Act of
Uniformity outlawing all Catholic and idolatrous
practices, and the adoption of Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer which was made compulsory for church services.
A sickly child, his health became worse as a teenager and he died of a respiratory illness at the age of 16. In the last weeks of his life he tried to change the succession by nominating his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey as his heir, in place of his half-sister Mary who was a Catholic.
Peculiar Fact:
Edward was reportedly much smarter than children of his own age and often grew angry and frustrated at the way his regency councillors tried to use him for their own ends. On one famous occasion he stormed back to his bedchamber after a meeting, grabbed his favourite
falcon, plucked out his feathers in frustration and then killed it by tearing it apart, saying that one day he would do the same to those who were trying to abuse him.
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Jane Grey:
Monarch or Not?
Disputed Reign:
10 - 19 July 1553
Birth:
Circa 1536-1537, exact birth location unknown. Oldest child of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and of Frances Brandon, niece of King Henry VIII.
Spouse:
Guilford Dudley (c.1535-1554), son of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.
Death:
12 February 1554, on the execution scaffold at the Tower of London.
The Succession:
The case of whether Jane Grey was a legitimate
monarch or not is a grey area indeed. Jane was chosen by Edward VI as his successor as he was slowly dying in the summer of 1553, in spite of the existing Act of Succession 111
of 1544 and Henry VIII’s last will, both of which
specifically stipulated that should Edward die without heirs the crown would pass to his oldest half-sister Mary, Henry VIII’s daughter by Catherine Aragon; that if then Mary died with no children the crown would pass to their half-sister Elizabeth, Henry’s daughter by Anne Boleyn; and that if Elizabeth died with no children, then finally the crown would be passed to the descendants of Henry VIII’s sister Mary Tudor, which included her eldest granddaughter Jane Grey. Edward’s motives for cutting his half-sister Mary from the succession were both
religious and political: Mary was a confirmed Catholic who was certain to undo the Protestant reforms
instituted by Edward’s council. His reasons for excluding his half-sister Elizabeth, who was also a Protestant, are not as clear, but it was likely due to political machinations at Edward’s court. Jane Grey was married to the son of Edward’s chief minister, the Duke of Northumberland, who had more power to gain if Jane Grey were to be
proclaimed Queen instead of Elizabeth.
The Events:
In June 1553 Edward VI issued letters patent
officially altering the succession, stating that at his death the crown would pass to Lady Jane Grey and her heirs.
The king died before the changes to the succession could 112
be confirmed by Parliament, but the plans were
implemented nevertheless. On 10 July 1553, four days after Edward VI died, the Privy Council proclaimed Jane Grey Queen, and she was installed in the Tower of
London in preparation for her coronation as per the traditional custom. Edward’s half-sister Mary however also asserted her right to the crown, and after writing to the Privy Council demanding that they proclaim her
Queen she travelled to East Anglia to gather followers and prepare troops for a possible showdown against the Duke of Northumberland, Jane’s father-in-law and real power behind the throne. As Mary’s support grew in
London and elsewhere, the Privy Council changed their allegiance and on 19 July they proclaimed Mary Queen in place of Jane. The Duke of Northumberland, who had left for East Anglia in the hope of capturing Mary, was
arrested and later executed. Jane was officially arrested on 19 July and imprisoned in the Tower, and two weeks later Mary entered London in triumphal procession as Queen acknowledged by all. Jane and her husband
Guilford Dudley were later tried and convicted of treason, but Mary decided initially to spare their lives as there was evidence they both had been victims of
Northumberland’s political ambition. It was noted that Jane had been reluctant to receive the crown and was only convinced to accept it when her parents forced her, and that later she did not resist her uncrowning. Mary’s initial pardon was revoked however after an armed revolt in January 1554 called Wyatt’s rebellion, in which Jane’s 113
father took part. Although Jane had not been involved in it, she, her husband and her father were all executed in February 1554.
The Case For Jane’s
Legitimacy as Monarch:
Edward VI’s change to the succession was not a one-
sided affair forced upon the country. His letter patents of 21 June 1553 proclaiming Jane his heir was signed by over 100 notable persons in the realm, including the entire Privy Council, peers, bishops, judges and officials of the City of London. It can be argued that this group of people represented the unofficial collective will of the realm, and that if Edward had not died so quickly the new succession would most likely have been approved a few months later by Parliament, the body representing the official will of the realm, which had already been
convoked by Edward for September 1553.
There was a genuine case to be made against the
legitimacy of both Mary and Elizabeth as heirs to the throne, caused by a legal quirk in the previous Succession Acts passed by Henry VIII. The First Succession Act of 1533, passed after Catherine of Aragon was divorced, had disinherited Mary and proclaimed her illegitimate. The Second Succession Act of 1536, passed after Anne Boleyn 114
had been divorced, had disinherited Elizabeth and also proclaimed her illegitimate. The Third Succession Act of 1544, passed after the birth of the future Edward VI, had reinstated Mary and Elizabeth in the line of succession, but had not revoked their illegitimate status. It had only enabled their capacity to succeed to the throne but curiously had not made them legitimate heirs of Henry’s body once again, as indeed it could not do as Henry’s marriage to their mothers had been declared void.
Furthermore, the Third Succession Act also gave Henry VIII power to alter the succession at his pleasure simply by issuing letters patent or last wills, and this power could arguably be said to have been inherited by Edward as his successor—which he had therefore exercised
legally through precedent when he disinherited his half-sisters by letters patent in 1553. It is said that Edward himself had grave doubts about his half-sisters’ suitability as monarchs exactly because of their confirmed
illegitimacy.
Jane was not proclaimed Quee
n as a rival claimant
against an existing monarch, as for example happened in 1487 when the pretender Lambert Simnel was illegally proclaimed king against Henry VII, or as it would later happen with the Jacobite pretenders in the 18th century.
Her accession was proclaimed legally by the country’s Privy Council and was confirmed by the City of London as per tradition. She was installed in the Tower of London as all new monarchs awaiting their coronation were
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supposed to be, and she did issue legitimate legal
documents signed ‘Jane the Queen’. One could make the case that Jane began to reign as a legitimate monarch but was quickly deposed after a legal nine-day reign.
The Case Against Jane’s
Legitimacy as Monarch:
Regardless of how many notable people put their
signatures to Edward VI’s letters patent altering the succession, the new line of succession was never
approved by Act of Parliament, which left the existing Third Succession Act of 1544 in place naming Mary as heir to Edward VI. This Act was also re-enforced by Henry VIII’s last will of 1547 restating his wish that Mary inherit the crown should Edward die without issue. Furthermore, it is not clear if the provisions of the Third Succession Act authorising the king to alter the succession at will through letters patent or last wills applied to any monarch except Henry VIII with whom the Act was solely concerned. Also, Edward VI died at the age of 15 before achieving his legal majority, making his letters patent legally questionable and any decision regarding the succession subject to Parliament’s legal approval, which was not granted because it had not convened yet by the time Edward died.
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In the absence of Parliament passing a new
succession act, not only did the Third Succession Act of 1544 naming Mary as heir to a childless Edward remain in place: the Treason Act of 1547 made altering the existing succession as established by Parliament a crime
punishable by death. This treason act was in force when the Privy Council proclaimed Jane Queen, making her proclamation therefore illegal and a crime.
It is significant that the same Privy Council who had proclaimed Jane Queen on 10 July switched their
allegiance soon afterwards to proclaim Mary Queen on 19 July. This change of heart occurred after the Duke of Northumberland left London on 14 July to fight Mary in East Anglia. This suggests that the Council’s initial proclamation of Jane might have been forced upon them by the Duke and his party, making Jane’s proclamation an act of usurpation of the crown. This was confirmed in September by Parliament, the ultimate legal authority in the kingdom, who confirmed Mary as the legitimate
monarch and proclaimed Jane to have been a usurper.
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Conclusion:
The issue of Jane Grey’s legitimacy as a monarch has never been fully resolved. This is shown in the way she is often referred to in popular culture as ‘the nine-day Queen’, though the title by which she is also known is not Queen Jane, but ‘Lady’ Jane Grey. Ultimately, her
legitimacy rests on personal interpretations of her historical case and legal standing as monarch. In this writer’s opinion, the fact that Parliament—the ultimate legal authority in England—was never consulted on the changes to the succession and later refused to recognise Jane’s accession means that Jane Grey cannot be
considered a legitimate monarch. She is therefore
excluded from many relevant sections and lists in this book.
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Mary I
Reign:
6 July 1553 – 17 November 1558
Birth:
18 February 1516, at Greenwich Palace, near London.
Only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon.
King Consort:
Prince Philip, later King Philip II, of Spain (1527-1598), son of Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor.
Death:
17 November 1558, at St James’s Palace, London.
Key Facts:
The first Queen Regnant in English history, Mary’s
path to the throne was fraught with difficulty. As the daughter of Catherine of Aragon she was first removed from the line of succession in 1533 after her father 119
divorced her mother, and was only reinstated as heir during the last years of Henry VIII’s life. Her half-brother Edward also tried to disinherit her as his own heir in 1553
because she was a Catholic, and after his death Mary had to fight an attempt to make her cousin Jane Grey Queen in her place.
She tried to restore Catholicism in England by
reversing the changes instituted by the two previous monarchs. She famously sanctioned the burning of some Protestants as heretics including Thomas Cranmer, the former Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, earning for herself the nickname of Bloody Mary for posterity.
In 1554 she married her cousin, the Catholic Philip of Spain who was made King Consort, but she retained sole constitutional power as monarch, setting a precedent for future Queens Regnant. The marriage was deeply
unpopular in England and led to an uprising against Mary in the south called Wyatt’s Rebellion.
Following Wyatt’s Rebellion in 1554 she was forced
to execute Lady Jane Grey along with her husband and father. She also had a strained relationship with her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth, who many wished to see Queen in place of Mary, and in 1554 she briefly
imprisoned Elizabeth in the Tower of London under
suspicion of plotting to take her throne. She only
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accepted Elizabeth as her heir in 1558 when it became clear that her marriage to Philip of Spain would remain childless.
During her reign the territory of Calais, the last
English possession in mainland France, was permanently recaptured by the French in 1558, leaving Mary to
famously utter the words "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Calais' lying on my heart!"
Peculiar Fact:
Although it might not have been initially named after her, the cocktail drink ‘Bloody Mary’ is today associated with Mary I and her persecution of Protestants. The drink was created in the 1920s and, deliberately or not, was given the same name given to Mary in John Foxe’s Protestant Book of Martyrs of 1563. The drink is made with vodka and tomato juice, the red of the tomato juice recalling the blood spilled by Mary’s executions (even though most of her victims were burned).
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Elizabeth I
Reign:
17 November 1558 – 24 March 1603
Birth:
7 September 1533, at Greenwich Palace, near London.
Only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn.
Consort:
None
Death:
24 March 1603, at Richmond Palace, near London.
Key Facts:
Widely regarded as the greatest monarch in English
history, she presided over England’s Golden Age when the country enjoyed domestic peace, prosperity, and grew in international status. She encouraged the cult of 122
herself as Gloriana, the glorious personification of England itself.
Intelligent and extensively educated at a young age, she was skilled in languages and wrote her own public speeches. She wisely surrounded herself with capable advisers and administrators which formed perhaps the best royal council in English history. These included William Cecil, Francis Walsingham, Robert Dudley,
Thomas Gresham, Robert Cecil and Francis Bacon.
She famously refused to marry despite many offers
from foreign princes, but she used offers of betrothal as diplomatic tools to shape European alliances. Although when young she enjoyed a romantic—but most likely
unconsummated—affair with Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester, she later opted to remain unmarried, claiming that she was a Virgin Queen married to her co
untry.
She presided over a new religious settlement in
England that struck a balance between Protestant
doctrine and Catholic tradition, the results of which survive to this day. She opposed Protestant extremism and quietly tolerated private Catholic worship, famously saying that she did not wish to make windows into
people’s souls.
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Excommunicated by the pope in 1570, she was
subject to several assassination attempts by some
Catholics who wished to see her replaced on the throne by her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Her
secretary and chief spymaster, Francis Walsingham,
established the first secret service in England to protect her from plots and threats.
She had a strained relationship with her Catholic
cousin, and presumed heir, Mary Queen Scots, whom she welcomed in England in 1568 after Mary lost her Scottish throne. After keeping Mary on house arrests for 18 years and finally finding proof that she had conspired with others to murder her, Elizabeth reluctantly approved her execution for treason in 1587.